Little Miss Sunshine

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Review: Vacation gets a darker redux in this terrific ensemble film.

By Jeff Otto

It's been a popular summer for Vacation rip-offs. Earlier this year, Robin Williams headlined the low-brow smash hit, R.V.. Think Vacation dumbed down for modern family mall audiences. Now the Vacation formula is referenced once again just a few months later in Little Miss Sunshine, a darker take on the dysfunctional family road trip that proves a familiar formula can still be wielded into a fresh take if you try hard enough.

The Hoover family has its share of problems. The father, Richard (Greg Kinnear), is desperately trying to get a new motivational nine-step program out to the public. His son, Dwayne (Paul Dano), has taken a vow of silence as an homage to Nietzsche until he gets into the Air Force Academy. The grandfather (Alan Arkin) redefines the term "dirty old man" recommending a life of meaningless sex with lots of women to his grandson in-between snorting large amounts of heroine. Frank (Steve Carell) is the brother-in-law, who has recently tried to commit suicide after a messy break-up with his male student. The daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin) is a four-eyed, slightly chubby seven-year-old obsessed with beauty pageants who hopes to one day wear the crown herself. The mother, Sheryl (Toni Collette), is desperately trying to keep the family together amidst growing dissention from every angle.

Through a series of flukish events, Olive is invited to compete in the "Little Miss Sunshine" competition in California. Desperately strapped for cash while awaiting Richard's "system" to pay off, the family decides to rally together and support Olive, piling the band of miscreants into a barely-running VW van and heading out on the three-day journey to California.

Co-directed by music video-directing husband and wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine is anything but what you'd expect from music video directors. Equal points endearing, funny, smart and engaging, this is one of the best adult family films in recent memory. Screenwriter Michael Arndt's script is filled with a dark humor matched perfectly to an emotional center point that keeps the story fun, while at the same time feeling very poignant and realistic. Each one of his characters is almost equally explored, a wealth of strong parts for a terrific cast.

Olive is a real kid you seldom see on the screen. No, what we get are perfectly homogenized little figurines that all come from the same mold. Sunshine takes its chances to poke fun at this reality when the story hits a peak at a frightening image of the American child beauty pageant that I fear is far more realistic than we'd like to believe.

Young Abigail Breslin's lack of a lisp, perfectly formed teeth or those creepy kiddie gym-built bodies we see in the ending contest likely prevent her from being offered most child roles out there. She's so good and mature as Olive, however, that we can hope her bubbly personality, winning-smile and acting abilities overcome Hollywood's mentality to mass-produce unoriginality.

Hot on the heels of a burgeoning comedy career, Steve Carell showcases a rounded knack for mixing drama in with the laughs. Carell's Frank is massively depressed and post-suicidal, but Arndt's script is smart enough to poke fun at the downslide Frank's life has become without seeming overtly mean-spirited. Carell plays the straight man of the piece in a way, an outsider who along with his sister Sheryl may actually be the most sane of the bunch.

Kinnear excels as the buffoonish Richard, who is so entirely unlikable at the start that he can't help but redeem himself by the end of the tale. Kinnear is great in the part, never missing a beat with his irritatingly upbeat shtick that makes everyone around him want to gag.

Dano doesn't get to speak for the first two-thirds of the movie, but manages more than a few laughs from looks alone. A talented up-and-coming actor with a knack for choosing surprisingly edgy material for his age (L.I.E., Ballad of Jack and Rose, Fast Food Nation), Dano manages one of the film's strongest moments at the start of act three.

Saving the best for last, an off-the-hook funny Alan Arkin delivers one of the most entertaining performances of his great career. More than a bit subversive as a druggie, pervert grandpa, Arkin's character manages to mix in enough good-willed speeches and uproariously inappropriate humor to become an easy character to love. Throughout the film, we are given brief glimpses of the talent he's teaching Oliver for the show, but the payoff is beyond any expectation, a gut-busting sequence of indescribable proportions.

Miss Sunshine's truly perfect ensemble cast live up to the excellent script and direction to create a film impossible not to love. It's got a little bit for everyone, an easily identifiable premise that makes anyone who thought their family was the nuttiest feel a little closer to normal. Comedies are seldom rewarded come the statue-season, but let's hope Sunshine mixes enough drama to be remembered as one of this year's finest films.